Page 63 of Sicilian Savior

Lucia: Oh my God! It’s huge!

Me: That’s what she said.

Lucia: Knox! LOL But it is huge ;)

Me: Show you again later. XX

Lucia: You bet your ass you will. XX

I chuckled as I put my phone away.

Perfect. My life was downright perfect. I had the woman that I loved. A kid I adored. A beautiful piece of land to call home. Lucia’s store opened up this week and was already doing great. God, I loved seeing her flourishing as a business owner and carving out a life that wasn’t just moving from one moment to the next as she agonized over her own safety and struggled to survive. And the only thing left not perfect in this happy little world of mine was that Victor was still breathing.

Somewhere.

Damned if we could find his smarmy ass.

Wes had been hunting for the past month to no avail. After the attack on his compound, Victor had gone deep into hiding. Most of his main people were killed that night, leaving him crippled and undefended. He may be smart enough to lay low for now, but I knew guys like Victor. There was no way he was walking away from his organization. No. He was just figuring out a way to come back. And even though I told Lucia there was no way he suspected that we had Luca, and I doubted he did, it still didn’t ease the knot in my stomach that a threat to the two people I loved most in the world still lurked somewhere in the shadows.

The day I got to snuff out his life would be the happiest damn day of my life. Soon. There was no one on the planet Wes couldn’t find, and eventually, Victor would mess up. And the moment he did, I’d be there.

Luca and I drove to our rental house, and when I pulled up, Lucia hurried outside. She gave Luca a hug and a kiss, fawning over the fish he’d caught. When he ran inside to go to the bathroom, Lucia walked over to me and slid her arms around my neck.

“I missed you,” she said before brushing her lips to mine.

“I missed you more.” I slid my hand around her waist and pulled her against me, slipping my tongue inside her mouth.

She moaned and matched my rhythm, then suddenly, she stopped.

Pulling back, she wrinkled her nose. “Oh, man. You smell like fish. I just got a whiff.”

“You don’t like it?” I lifted my hands and waved them in her face.

“Knox! Ew! No!” She squealed and started running away. I chased her around the yard with my big, stinky mitts, finally tackling her into the grass.

“So gross!” she spat as I kept wafting my hand over her face.

“You don’t want to bottle this up and sell it in the shop? I think it would really sell well.”

“I’m gonna kill you,” she argued as she struggled against me.

“How about you kiss me instead?” I pressed my lips to hers, and she melted into my kiss.

“Dog pile!” Luca shouted.

I glanced up to see him racing at us. He jumped onto my back, and I feigned getting squashed under his weight. “Ugh! I’m pinned! I can’t move!”

Luca laughed and wrapped his arms around my neck. Lucia giggled as well, and we all flopped into a pile, sprawled out together in the grass.

When I looked over at both of their smiling faces, my heart did that thing again, and I thought this time for sure it would explode.

“You still gonna get me ice cream?” Luca asked.

“We’re getting ice cream?” Lucia said.

“I made a deal. We’re getting ice cream tonight. How about we filet this fish, I’ll wash up, and while your mom cooks dinner, I’ll run to town for ice cream.”

“Okay.” Luca grinned.